AI's Business Potential, Innovation in Corporate Travel, and Navigating the Model Landscape
From diving into unlocking the ROI of AI during the CIO Summit to reimagining business travel with Otto, this week's newsletter is packed with insights and bold predictions about the future of AI.?We're also releasing the final panel recording from last month's IA Summit —?hear from?industry leaders from Microsoft, Cohere, and AI2 as they explore foundation models' evolving role and impact on enterprise strategy. On the portfolio front, Rec Room launched on the Nintendo Switch, Unstructured introduced a SQLite connector, and Spice AI unveiled an extension for GitHub Copilot — just to name?a few exciting updates this week.
Perspectives
Unlocking AI’s Business Potential: Highlights From the 2024 CIO Summit
AI is no longer a future bet — it’s a competitive necessity shaping the present.?At Madrona’s recent CIO Summit, leaders like Julia Liuson ( 微软 ), Tamar Yehoshua ( Glean ), and Amit Mital (most recently Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director at the National Security Council) shared how enterprises are shifting AI from experimentation to mission-critical. The challenge? Proving ROI while tackling trust, governance, and adoption hurdles.
These themes also resonated throughout the conversations at the IA Summit, where the focus was on how AI is transforming industries and driving innovation. For those who couldn’t attend both events, we wanted to share these key highlights from Madrona Managing Director S. Somasegar and Investor Rolanda Fu to complement the broader AI discussions.
The big takeaway? AI is here to stay, but only those willing to act decisively will unlock its full potential. Read the full blog here.
2024 IA Summit
Navigating the Model Landscape
At Madrona, we believe great conversations spark great innovation—and the final panel to be released from our IA Summit last month was no exception. Industry leaders Asha Sharma (Microsoft ), Saurabh Baji (Cohere) , and Ali Farhadi (Ai2 ) dove deep into the evolving role of foundation models with moderator Eric Newcomer (Newcomer ) sharing tactical insights that founders can act on today to shape their AI strategies for tomorrow.
Open vs. Proprietary: Know Your Trade-OffsOpen-source models like Llama have made waves, but true openness requires more than releasing weights — it’s about transparency in training and architecture. Founders face a choice between cost-efficient, customizable open models and enterprise-grade, secure proprietary solutions. Understanding this trade-off is critical to designing an AI stack that balances innovation with operational needs.
From Models to Systems: Building for ImpactAI is shifting from experimental to production-ready systems. Founders should think beyond deploying a model. Winning in AI means building systems that solve real business problems end-to-end — leveraging retrieval, orchestration, and user-friendly interfaces to maximize value.
The Multi-Model Era is HereGone are the days of “one model to rule them all.” Founders should focus on identifying the right model for the job rather than defaulting to the largest or most popular option. Multi-model strategies not only cut costs but also unlock performance gains in specific use cases.
Founded & Funded
Beyond the Model: Taking AI From Prototype to Production
Did you catch the fantastic discussion between Madrona's Karan Mehandru and Brian S. Raymond from unstructured.io ?
In this IA40 Spotlight, Brian dives into challenges and breakthroughs in moving generative AI from prototype to production—a real-world look at the "first mile of AI." For founders, it's clear that success in AI goes beyond model deployment. Ensuring data is accessible and usable through effective ingestion and preprocessing is foundational for scalable, production-grade AI. It's also essential to stay adaptable: AI is evolving fast, and frequent pivots based on user feedback can make all the difference.
Tune in for practical insights on building a resilient AI foundation from the ground up!?
Madrona Venture Labs
Michael Gulmann and Otto:?Transforming the Business Travel Experience
Madrona Venture Labs Managing Director Mike Fridgen sat down with Michael Gulmann , Founder and CEO of Otto, MVL's latest spin-out, to discuss how its AI-powered travel assistant transforms business travel through enhanced personalization and automation.
Learn how Otto leverages advanced AI architectures, raised $6M in seed funding, and collaborates with industry pioneers to bring back the personal touch to business travel. Plus, get inspired by Michael's vision for seamless travel, his advice for building a team of curious innovators, and his travel stories from Croatia and Morocco. Read the full conversation here.
Portfolio Roundup
Rec Room is now on Nintendo Switch.
Unstructured released a SQLite connector. ?
Spice AI launched the Spice.ai extension for GitHub Copilot to make it easy to access and chat with external data.?CEO Luke Kim also shares the company’s journey of building an AI-native database with Apache DataFusion specifically for data-driven AI and agentic applications at Carnegie Mellon University.?
Stacklok was featured in The New Stack for its move to donate its Minder project to the Open Source Security Foundation.
Amperity Director of Strategic Partnerships Brian Shumsky published a column about GenAI’s impact on marketing on the VMBlog. The company was also featured in Travel Weekly .
CommerceIQ Head of Retailer Partnerships Chris Sheldon joined the Doing Business in Bentonville podcast to discuss Prime Day learnings, Walmart earnings, and the future of AI in commerce.
Qumulo CEO Doug Gourlay joined TheCUBE and NYSE’s CXO series.
Echodyne CTO and Founder Tom Driscoll joined the BBC World Service Tech Life podcast to share his take on how the industry is managing all the uncrewed aircraft entering the skies and the emerging use cases of drones. (Discussion starts at 11:03)